Prabowo Subianto, a True Indonesian Statesman

Indonesia Herald-Jakarta. ContemporaryIndonesian politics is not separable from a well-known politician, Retired Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto. His name continues to be popular among Indonesian people until today for his quality as a true statesman, particularly in regard to his ability to forgive his political opponents for the sake of national interest.

Prabowo is a forgiving man. He has been betrayed both in his military career and political life by those who once were his close allies. Despite this, he forgave those people and publicly showed his respect for them.

In the 2014 Indonesian presidential election, Prabowo had to fight for a presidency against Jokowi, whom he had promoted to be a national politician in the previous years. Jokowi’s political party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) had actually promised to support Prabowo’s candidacy, a promise documented in the Batu Tulis Agreement signed both by PDIP leaders and the leaders of Prabowo’s party, Gerindra. Betraying Prabowo, PDIP leaders supported Jokowi instead.

During his presidential campaign, Prabowo received psychological attacks from his haters through a massive black propaganda. These haters mostly consisted of Jokowi’s supporters.

When Jokowi won the election in July 2014, Prabowo and his supporters were disappointed with what was believed be their unfair loss. They believed that the Indonesian Commission for General election (KPU) had worked with Jokowi to cheat the election process and result for Jokowi’s victory.

Instead of mobilizing his supporters to unleash their anger and create chaos across Indonesia, Prabowo took a lawful action against his loss. At the end, he lost his case against KPU and Jokowi.

Despite his final loss, Prabowo congratulated Jokowi on Jokowi’s victory publicly. In addition to that, he attended Jokowi’s presidential coronation.

Prabowo’s words and actions showed that he had put aside his personal hurt caused by the betrayal of PDIP and Jokowi for the sake of his country and people.

This forgiving quality for the sake of a nation’s greater good is only found in a true statesman; and that true Indonesian statesman is the Retired Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto. (IH-062).